The timberman beetle (''Acanthocinus aedilis'') is a species of woodboring

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

belonging to the

longhorn beetle The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than ...

family. It is found in

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

s, with a large distribution through

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. It is also known as the Siberian Timberman due to its range extending northwards in to Siberia. In Finnish this species is known as Sarvijaakko, in Dutch as Dennenboktor and in Swedish as Större Timmerman. For more vernacular names see the GBIF profile. Despite a few sources suggesting reports in Central America, no confirmed reports were available at time of editing (May, 2020). The species is also not listed as invasive in North America. The body length ranges from 12-20mm, with antennae up for 3 times the body length in males, or 1.5 times the body length in females. Their lifespan is up to 3 years which includes the 1–2 years spent in the larval stage. This species is capable of surviving freezing temperatures below -37 °C in both the adult and larval stages. The adults are active from March to June, during which they are diurnal. The adults overwinter in pupal chambers in leaf litter or under the bark. In Continental Europe, this species has become a serious pest of commercially-grown timber as the larvae feed under the bark, weakening the trees. Through infesting weakened trees, excavating galleries under the bark, the trees then die. Their development within wood debris in natural forests is beneficial for

nutrient cycling A nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling) is the movement and exchange of inorganic and organic matter back into the production of matter. Energy flow is a unidirectional and noncyclic pathway, whereas the movement of mineral nutrients is cycli ...

in forest ecosystems, but can also facilitate the transfer of pathogenic fungi within woodlands.

Scots pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...

(''Pinus sylvestris'' L.) and

Norway Spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...

(''Picea abies'') are key food sources for this beetle species. A distribution map within the UK can be found courtesy of the

National Biodiversity Network The National Biodiversity Network (UK) (NBN) is a collaborative venture set up in 2000 in the United Kingdom committed to making biodiversity information available through various media, including on the internet via the NBN Atlas—the data searc ...

. The species is reported to be ''Nationally Scarce category B'' within

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

by the Wildlife Trust BCN in 2018.

References

Insect Natural History, A.D.Imms, Collins, 1973 * * {{taxonbar , from=Q203735 Acanthocinus Beetles of Europe Beetles of Asia Beetles described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus